Himalaya are boon and curse. These are the mountains that’s helps to tranquil our soul and assemble our hopes in solitude. The same mountains stand tall to hinder the progress to modern development and technology. The mighty rivers starts as rivulet in lap of these mountains. The kinetic energy of falling river among the slopes are used to harness power to grind grains to empower human body. The conservation of energy works perfectly fine satisfying scientific society of rich nation who want’s to keep nature pure and make big shout out for being agrarian while doing so.

These turning machine are popularly known as Pani Ghatta a.k.a water mills. The water mills are very popular across Himalayas, as it is only reliable machine to grind grain for people living across the regions. The water mills is not limited to Nepal but you can see across stretch of hills of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tibet, and Bhutan. Traditionally limited to grinding, now many are modified to generate electricity for local use.

Construction:

The water is diverted from the main stream via open or closed duct towards the turbine placed on lower section of mill house. The turbine used to be made of wood, but majority of wooden turbines are replaced with metallic as improved water mills these days. The vertical shaft connected to turbine on the floor of mill house runs, and turns the upper section of stone. The lower section is stationary, and grains stored in wooden settings above the stone drops grains through hole in upper stone to lower stone via feeder mechanism, and then grains are grinded in between the stones.

Improved Water Mills (IMW)- New Name for Modern era

Improved water mills is one of the clean technologies promoted by government of Nepal with many other stakeholders. Nepal has about 25,000 traditional water mills scattered throughout the country. 6,500 of them already have been converted to IMW. Replacement of wooden parts (rotor and shaft) with metallic parts is the main improvement made in the technology. The technology can also generate electricity up to 3 kW, sufficient for lighting as well as for operating small electric and electronic home appliances.

Advantages of IWM

Employment :The installation, advocacy, operation, maintenance and promotion of IMW will create lot of opportunities at national and local level employing skilled as well as unskilled labor.

Income Level :It helps to improve income of mill owner as well as user. It helps to increase living standard of local people.

Boosting the local Economy : The water mill will remove drudgery of traditional grinding. It will save time which people can invest in income generating activities like animal husbandry, agriculture, and others. People will get familiar to new technology and electronic devices which is powered by electricity from water mill.

Gender Mainstreaming and Social Inclusion: Water mills helps to reduce stress of grinding grains for women. Traditionally grinding was done manually by women. This replaces huge burden on women. The mills will be melting point for women to socialize and get connected to each other. It helps to remove social evils like un-touch-ability, status quo and others.

Environmental Impacts :The IWM is powered by gravity-driven water, a renewable source of energy, which essentially does not produce air pollution or sound pollution. Therefore, the technology is environmentally sound and acceptable.

The slowly rising sun on wind shield of car, increasing reading on speedometer and decreasing miles to destination on GPS is all what a traveler seeks. After arduous class hour, work and research this was much needed break for me. To be out in sun and feel cool breeze on face. The trip to Gatlinburg, where mighty Smokey’s mountains was one of the much-awaited trip for me. By the way who does not love nature and mountain.

The smokies mountains are the best place to visit in spring months. The hike trails, biking, fishing are few things you can do on lot more things. I strongly suggest to try Ole smoky whisky a.k.a moonshine and sugar land whisky. The best about the drinks are they are locally brewed and tastes so smooth. It was hell of an experience for me.

Ever wondered about the tires which are no longer roadworthy after they are used? They are stockpiled, dumped in landfills, or just thrown away on roadsides. This linear product use approach results in a massive waste.

Tires, whether it is electric, solar powered, gasoline, or hydrogen fueled vehicle, are indispensable components for the transportation industry. Scrap tires have potential to harm local environments and negatively affect human health. The most common problems associated with waste tires are open air fires and the creation of breeding ground for rodents and mosquitoes. It’s bad but it’s a fact. According to The Freedonia Group Report it is estimated that the world demand for tires is forecast to rise 4.7 percent per year through 2015 to 3.3 billion units, approximately same amount of tires are disposed of every year and almost 20% of them are illegally dumped in landfills, or just thrown away on roadsides.

Is this the end of the story? No, a these approaches can ultimately lead towards right environmental choice and would also make good financial sense.

Circular Economy

The alternative to the growing waste concerns is to develop a circular economy which goes much further than recycling and there is a strong business case for development. Building recycling industries to recover, recycle and process the waste tires – with the focus on the reduce and reuse principles, unemployed people can find gainful employment, SMEs can be developed and, the environmental disaster that waste tires represent can be economically and effectively addressed. Analysis by McKinsey estimates that shifting in this direction of circular economy model could add $1-trillion to the global economy by 2025 and create 100 000 new jobs within the next five years. It’s worth it!

Energy

A normal used passenger car tire weighs 7.2 kg; it contains at least 238 MJ of thermal energy, which can be useful in some dedicated facilities. In thermoelectric plants, tires are fed into the hearth without any pre-treatment or slicing. This process is an economically viable alternative for used tires that cannot be effectively retreaded, generating a large amount of by-products. Each ton of input (as tires) generates 287 kg of solid residue made of zinc oxide, ferrous slag and gypsum, each with a well-defined market. The use of old tires as fuel has the advantage that it does not generate any waste beyond what is usually generated by a standard cement production process. Sliced tires can be fed into the kiln with the other raw materials. The energy in the rubber provides the heat while the combustion residues are incorporated in the cement without compromising the product’s quality. The ferrous material from the steel wire partially substitutes the large quantities of iron ore used in cement production. Several fuels are used in a cement plants including coal, natural gas and oil. The rubber may provide roughly 20% of the heat required in the kiln, generally at a lower cost than the other fuels. The high temperature of combustion, around 1400°C, under appropriate supply of oxygen, ensures complete burnout of the organic material.

Construction Applications

Rubberized asphalt is an alternative to traditional paving material that combines the strength and versatility of asphalt and the longevity and flexibility of recycled rubber. Derived from scrap tires, the material is said to be longer lasting, safer, less costly and friendlier to the environment than traditional paving materials.

Scrap tires can be processed into ground rubber to modify asphalt thereby creating rubberized asphalt and rubber asphalt concrete. Asphalt companies buy large quantities of shredded rubber crumbs to mix with their hot melt asphalt to make pavements cheaper. Other road construction companies purchase large quantities of medium sized shredder tires to use in road beds for minimizing vibrations and for highway sound barriers. Rubberized asphalt is not just sustainable, but actually better than the traditional alternative, better in every way.

Old tires can be used in barriers such as collision reduction, erosion control, rainwater runoff, wave action that protects piers and marshes. With a blend of art and engineering, the civil engineering applications of waste tires are emerging.

Re-Purpose

We can use old tires in child’s play areas. They’re great for setting up an obstacle course or making a sandbox or a tire swing. Tire mulch is also sold as padding for children’s playground. We can make soles for shoes or even entire pairs of flip-flops. We can make livestock feeders or pet house out of old tires. Used tires can be transformed into furniture with a little pie of skill and imagination. Since tires are black and they retain the heat from the sun easily, you can use them in your garden for growing your plants earlier. Basically, you can grow plants and veggies in tires earlier than in the ground. This trick works great with those species that require more warmth. You can make an outdoor storage bin using old tires secured together with some plywood and painted in your favorite color. Old tires can be transformed into a cool coffee table or other cool pieces of furniture. Just dive, there’s a world of thing you can do. Re- think!

It has been years since we dumped the opportunities for business through valuation of the waste. But, an era is evolving to turn the wastes in every bin into something really spectacular and create value. It is a new shift in the resource management approach, a transition to the unexplored territory and it provides battle against the traditional inertia of waste management. This is the way towards sustainable economies and eco-innovation, and can drive development across the board. This benefits all of us.

About the authors:

Bipin Karki is a graduate student of Renewable and Clean Energy at University of Dayton, and Former TGG Mentee at WWF Nepal (carried out project to reuse tires). He can be reached at bpn_krk@hotmail.com

Bishnu Parajuli is a undergraduate student of Industrial Engineering at Institute of Engineering, Thapathali Campus and the President of Society of Industrial Engineering Students – Nepal. He can be reached bishnu.parajuli13@gmail.com.

“The world is dynamic.” it was said by my environmental teacher in school which resonates in canvass of my memory since then. Sometime I ponder, Are we such dynamic? Are we so mad at changing world? Why we always look for development without its implication? Are we shameless & reckless in saving mother earth? Are we even serious about climate change? Only we are supposed to talk not act. The myriad of questioning, self satisfying answers and baseless hypothesis used to come in my mind. Education is change maker, I used to doubt on it. But after been educated, I am not only aware of burgeoning development across world but also consequences brought by them on nature as well human life. I am aware, I participate, I want change to come in thought and action. I want to see visible change not in future but also in present.

Like this:

Water mill is one of the traditional kind of grinding wheel that uses wheel or turbine to drive a mechanical process for various end use such as flour grinding,lumber or textile production.This type of technology is applicable in hill areas where there is enough head for running turbine. The water diverted from river or canal provides enough kinetic energy to drive wheel or turbine via head race channel or pipe.The force of the water’s movement drives the blades of a wheel or turbine, which in turn rotates an axle that drives the mill’s other machinery.

Water leaving the wheel or turbine is drained through a tail race, but this channel may also be the head race of yet another wheel, turbine or mill.This kinda of water mill is suitable in hilly and Himalayan region of Nepal where enough head is available.Not only for milling but it can generate electricity which can empower local community which can contribute for decreasing load on central load distribution.

Water Mill cum Micro hydro in Aghakhola, Palpa

This is good example of use of appropriate technology helping people to live under light. The micro-hydro generates electricity to operate mill services for customer and provides power in night to local resident in vicinity.

This is story of every household of Nepal’s Himalayan region when you climb above 3000 m altitude. Most of household including hotels, lodges, restaurant are equipped with solar panel turned into direction of sun. Due to lack of transmission line to transmit hydro power generated electricity, solar power is only viable source of power for people living here. People are cent percent dependent on solar power to charge mobile battery, lighting small portion of house and watching selected television program. Although it is costly and provide minimum amount of power to run daily life still it is boon for them. There is no clue for survey of transmission line and searching alternative power.

So solar technology is not only environment friendly but it has been only hope of people to lighten their house. Thus government should be able to provide subsidy and encourage use of solar power. This is not only be Eco-friendly but also save forest from deforestation. If you want to see real life use of solar technology pack your bag and move toward Himalayas.

Leadership is clichéd and commonly used in every organization. But SASE (Society of Asian Scientist and Engineer) is unique among such. SASE is an organization started by Asian American to promote South Asian Heritage embarks its journey from mere regional level to national level. The SASE consists of professional (working) and collegiate (student) member throughout U.S. There are various collegiate SASE chapter across university and colleges. They not only bring Asian American people together but also anyone is welcomed in the chapter. It’s all about networking, leadership, fun, professional & technical growth and coming out of comfort zone.

SASE University of Dayton Chapter, its lunch time at DFW airport Texas

I am proud member of SASE University of Dayton chapter. The journey to SASE started from small brochure from Kennedy Union field (SASE UD booth). The volume of meeting with SASE increased with various networking workshop, presentation skill seminar, workshops for introvert to name few. I was excited to hear about annual SASE conference at Dallas, Texas. I wanted to go learn, explore workshops. I am glad to be one among seven people to represent University of Dayton SASE chapter.

Ready for some fun and networking

The conference was one of my best three days where I got chance to meet people from diverse region and learn so many things. The event was scheduled for three days –

Registration and SASE bowl

The event kicked off with registration and networking sessions. There was ice breaker type competition known as SASE bowl. The SASE bowl quiz cum activities themed regional competition. We along with few others from mid-west represented team Mid-West – Airliners. We were runner up for the competition.

Workshops

There were parallel workshops running all around. I attended four workshop. I learnt about various recent technology, presentation skills, art of engineering storytelling, directed energy (use of laser in defense) are workshop which I attended. I got chance to review my resume from Toyota officials, who suggested do’s and do not’s while writing resume. The details workshops are as follows:

Presentation Skills – Shell

Learnt about do’s and do nots of presentation.

Body Language & posture

Use of picture and impacts on audience

How to avoid distraction & Q/A handling

Engineering: The Art of Story Telling – Toyota

Learnt about ideation cycle (IDEATE – CREATE- TEST-REFINE)

Quality Improvement Technique like KAIZEN, MUDA, HOSHIN

Story Cycle and Process

Share your WHY

Root Cause (Back Ground)

Know your Audience

Customer First

Pay attention to big Picture

Ideas must be as simple so try explaining non-technical person

How to communicate with higher Executives being technical person

What it feels like to work in Toyota

Leadership and Motivation – Huei Ren Pan

Learnt about role of leader

Coach, Mentor, Champion, Advocate

Top 5 motivation of mine while looking employer

Being Involved, Good working condition, Interesting works, Promotion, good wages

How to meet aspiration of employee when you are manager

Quality of Manager

Manager Vs Employee differences

What is Directed Energy? – DEPS

Talked about Projectile

LASER system

Direct Energy Weapon (Lethal/Anti Material)

Various DE Advantages and Applications

Career Fairs

There were numerous companies looking for perspective hiring for internship, co-op and full time. This is maiden career fair for me. I gave my pitch to every potential companies like BOOZ ALLEN HAMILTON, BOEING, DEPS, US DE, US ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEER, US POSTAL SERVICES, UNITED TECHNOLOGIES, and few more.